The peace of Christ be with you! As you may know, the Board of Ordained Ministry of the Florida Annual Conference is making some significant changes to the way that we do the annual interview process. These changes were adopted around the following values: simplicity, holistic, excellence, relational, hospitality.

As you begin the application process, I want to take the opportunity to highlight these changes for you:

Everyone who is recommended for provisional status by the District Committee on Ministry (dCOM) and submits a completed application to the Board of Ordained Ministry (BOM) will receive an interview from the BOM the second week of November.

Those who submit a completed application for Full Connection status to the BOM will be interviewed in the fourth week of January.

Clergy that have already received provisional status will have an annual Continuance Interview with the BOM the fourth week of January.

Each person will be interviewed by a small group of eight people. Each member of the small group will read all parts of the application.

The hope is that interviews will be more conversational and less confrontational.

Growth assignments will be developed by the interview team.

In lieu of the large group interview, applicants will give a brief self-introduction to the large group during the worship time.

Provisional members can apply for full connection status after serving two years as a provisional member and after completing their Residents in Ministry (RIM) commitments.

Local pastors (both full and part time) will now be interviewed and approved for licensing by the dCOMs, and not by the BOM. Local Pastor’s will continue to be licensed at Annual Conference.